b. Rename " Desktop " board to something that clearly means it is not for support

Changing the domain would be however the best thing to do while dealing with the search engines. Even set 301 redirects and initiate change of domain through Google Webmaster tools so that they will know.

Thanks for bringing this up. We have actually been discussing this already previously and have tweaked things a little to improve the site.

First off, we have a banner that new users see which explicitly states that the site is not for support. However, it appears this either isn’t prominent enough, or people just flat out don’t read it, or do read it, but are frustrated and feel this is the best place to vent and get their problem aired.

The site also pings a notification to new users, letting them know - again - that the site is not for support. Again, people don’t seem to read this.

Now, you’re probably seeing more support requests in the last couple of weeks because we changed how we process them. What we used to do is:-

Move the topic to the Support Requests category

Reply, linking the user to the page which details all the ways they can find help

Close the thread, so they don’t continue to ask questions in that thread

Hide the thread so it doesn’t appear on the front page

We had one person who asked a support question and we went through the above process. When they came back to the site they couldn’t see the support request (for some reason), possibly because we’d “hidden” the thread. So as an experiment what we’ve been doing is all of the above, but not hide the thread.

The net result is that the user can more easily re-find their thread, but the downside is that those threads are surfaced on the front page, so all of you see them. We could go back to hiding them, or we could hide the entire Support Category from the home page. That won’t stop people starting threads in other categories, but it will mean when we move them to the Support category, they’ll disappear from the front page.

On the subject of why people come here for support. There’s a few reasons. The Ubuntu installer sends people to this site to find out where to then get support. When the site was static, it was impossible to ask support requests so people had to follow the subsequent links on the static site to take them to a viable support platform (be that askubuntu, forums, irc or mailing lists).

Now this is a dynamic site which to all intents and purposes looks and acts like a support forum, people could be forgiven for thinking it is a support forum.

I’d be interested in hearing practical suggestions for improving this, obviously. But we have to respect that the people looking for help are likely frustrated users who have issues with their system, and while this isn’t the best place to get support, we need to figure out what to do with these people in a respectful and thoughtful way.

I’d be interested in hearing practical suggestions for improving this, obviously. But we have to respect that the people looking for help are likely frustrated users who have issues with their system, and while this isn’t the best place to get support, we need to figure out what to do with these people in a respectful and thoughtful way.

Thank you for your thoughtful review of this topic.

I am in favor of hiding these posts and category from the front page. Maybe that will clear what the purpose of this site is.

I am interested in improving this and working on implementing any solution that clears this out for new users (namely rephrasing the context where this website appears in the installer to make sure people will understand where to get support and what they can expect in this website). However, I am not entirely sure of this platform and other’s capabilities so it becomes harder for me to suggest concrete things. Nevertheless, I’ll brainstorm with you some ideas because maybe some derivation can come out from it and help us achieve our goals.

For instance, can we stop users from posting if a condition is met? Say, some keywords would appear if help, not working and so on appear in the topic bar, then do not allow posting and mention why in a pop-up on the right side.

Community means community, and in a community, people help each other, and people ask help from each other. In community.ubuntu.com (people don’t read the dots), you get community of ubuntu, or ubuntu community. So, it is natural for people to ask help. They also see developers here, so why not ask the question?

Either (1) the url name has to be changed to something else, maybe even without the name community, (2) redirect all questions to Ubuntu Forums General Help

The (1) must be much easier than (2) as someone has to work continuously to redirect.